


Damphyr

by calenlily



Series: Innocent'verse [2]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/M, Next Generation, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-11-04
Updated: 2008-11-03
Packaged: 2017-10-05 01:28:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 16,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/36293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calenlily/pseuds/calenlily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>17 years after Innocence Rewrite. Lia Summers has grown up with the supernatural, but she is not prepared to face destiny.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Note: this is set 17 years after an AU season 2. A lot of things are different; I'm hoping most of this is self-explanatory, so when you see something that doesn't agree with canon, just go with it. Most of the changes I've thought would be direct consequences (in chain-reaction manner) of my alternate season 2. Plus season 7 just plain didn't happen, because the potentials annoyed me and I liked Sunnydale. Author's prerogative.

Lia was having one of those days. That is, the kind of day when she wanted nothing more than for everyone to leave her alone so she could curl up and die in peace. Well, perhaps curling up and dying was a bit of an exaggeration, but she was having worse usual PMS and was definitely feeling miserable. And why wouldn’t this damn class just end? She allowed herself to zone out as her Algebra teacher droned on. For some odd reason, the last class of the day always seemed like the longest. Add that to it being her math class, and the period was downright interminable.

She snapped out of her thoughts as her bag began vibrating, and quickly pulled out her cell phone. She habitually kept her phone set on vibrate; not getting busted by her teachers for having it on it class was more than worth the inevitable teasing from her friends,

The text message was from Dawn. It read simply, “Magic Box after school. Prophecy research awaits.” She sent a quick reply of “k, thnx,” back to her sister, but groaned inwardly. _Why do I have to have work today of all days? Surely I deserve a break from sacred duty on account of cramps._

She laughed in spite of herself at the thought. Like _that_ was ever going to happen. She’d been a Champion since her supernatural powers kicked in at 11, despite her parents’ efforts to protect her, and faced her first apocalypse at 14. She knew as well as anyone else that destiny stops for no one and nothing. She was lucky it was just research tonight. She didn’t even have to patrol; surely she could manage a little bookwork.

Lia considered for a moment the utter freakishness of her life. She was herself some kind of supernatural Miracle Child, her twin sister was a dimensional key and aspiring witch, her mother was the Slayer (well, one of two actually, but that was totally beside the point. Anyway, Aunt Faith and her friends just added to the general weirdness), and her father was a vampire with a soul. She’d been immersed in the supernatural for as long as she could remember, and a warrior herself for the past six years. It seemed a bit surreal at times, certainly, but she generally liked the gig. She’d never really wanted normality. This was her world. She wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Miss Summers?” This time it was her teachers voice that interrupted Lia’s wandering thoughts.

“Yes?” She looked up and forcibly dragged her mind back to the torture that was Algebra II.

“Problem 59, Miss Summers,” Mr. Arden prompted.

“Oh, right.” She flashed her best “I-really-am-listening, honest” smile, and looked down at her homework. “Uh, x is equal to either 4 or 9?”

“Correct.”

Lia breathed a sigh of relief, and glanced up at the clock. Ten minutes left until I’m free of this place. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, willing time to go faster. Not that it did any good. _Dawn could probably actually do it. I doubt she would do so though. I think she’s received Aunt Willow’s lecture on frivolous and excessive use of magic a few too many times,_ she mused.

Practically as soon as the final bell rang, her best friend of 12 years, Katelyn Sorel, met her at her locker. “Hey Lia. What’s up?”

“Off to the magic box. Dawn says there’s a prophecy afoot. Care to join us?” Lia replied casually.

Her friend appeared to consider for a moment, “I dunno. Would there be any doughnuts in it for me?” she asked lightly, well aware of Scooby research party traditions. She knew all about demony stuff; when they’d first met, Lia had been too young to fully understand the importance of keeping the supernatural world a secret and Lyn was too young to disbelieve her stories.

“Depends,” Lia replied. “You driving?” She was only half-teasing. She was decidedly not in any mood to walk all the way over, and not above using bribery to get what she wanted of her friend.

“Sure,” the other girl agreed. “Just give me a minute to grab my stuff and then we can go.”

Lia gave her a grateful smile. “Thanks, Lyn. I feel like Hell today.” As if to emphasize the point, and wave of particularly bad cramps tore through her, causing her to wince in pain.

“No prob. I know how that is. But seriously, girl, you need to learn to drive,” Lyn commented.

Lia rolled her eyes. “I know, I know. But Mom says that since _she_ didn’t get her license till she was 18, that ought to be good enough for me too. Never mind that I’m nothing like she was at my age. If I did even half the things she did then, I’d be so totally screwed.” She sighed. “You ready to go?”

Katelyn nodded.

“Oh, wait.” Lia stopped abruptly. “I’d better tell Dawn. She’ll kill me if we go without her. She pulled her cell out again, and texted her sister, “Dawn! Get your ass over here. Lyn’s driving us to the Magic Box.”

“Be right there,” Dawn texted back, and true to her word showed up a minute or two later.

“So,” Lia asked as they all piled into Lyn’s car, “How come you got advanced notice of the research party?”

Dawn gave her a “what-are-you-an-idiot” kind of look. “6th period, silly. I just had programming class. Jenny told me.”

“Oh, right, of course,” Lia said, exaggeratedly slapping her forehead. “Sorry, can’t think today.”

“Obviously,” Dawn teased. “I think you got a problem with your brain being missing.”

Lia shot her a death glare. “And I think you got a problem with watching too much TV.”

“Well, how can I resist quoting the awesomeness that is Firefly?” Dawn asked innocently.

Lia pretended to consider for a moment. “Well,” she said slowly, “it _is_ Firefly… I guess I’ll forgive you this time. Anyways, d’you know anything more about this prophecy deal?”

“Well, I heard that the guys in LA found it and sent it here cause it looked Hellmouthy. Don’t know anything about it, but it kinda sounds like a guaranteed nastiness sort of thing,” Dawn said.

Lyn groaned, “_Another_ apocalypse?”

“Most likely,” Dawn sighed. “Tis the season, ya know.”

“Oh, naturally,” Lyn sighed. “It’s May, so we _must_ have an apocalypse.”

“Typical,” Lia muttered. “Never a quiet moment around here. Well, it just better not come to pass this week, or I’ll be seriously pissed off.”

“You mean you don’t always act like that?” Dawn asked sarcastically.

Lyn looked from one sister to the other. “Uh, guys?” she said. “We’re here.”

“Again, oh, right, of course,” Lia muttered as they got out.

The three girls looked around at the group assembled as they entered the magic shop that had become the general meeting place of the Scooby Gang. Lia saw her parents in conversation with Giles and Jenny, Aunt Anya still working the front counter, and Uncle Xander talking with Aunt Willow and Uncle Oz. Xander and Anya’s two children were off in one corner, 8-year-old Sara trying to keep 3-year-old Collin entertained. Diana Osbourne, a quiet redheaded girl who was Willow and Oz’s adoptive daughter, walked in through the back door with Myles Cohen, a skinny brown-haired boy whose pointed ears and reddish eyes betrayed his half-demon heritage.

“Whoa, looks like _everyone’s_ here,” Lyn whispered.

“Shiny,” Lia muttered.

“Now look who’s quoting,” Dawn commented. She elbowed her twin, saying in a singsong voice, “Myles is he-re.”

Lia’s death glare returned. “I noticed, of course he is, and furthermore, shut up,” she hissed. Everyone, with the possible exception of Myles himself, knew that Lia majorly like the half-demon boy. Consequently, her friends were constantly teasing her about him.

Now Lyn was smirking too. “Touchy, touchy.”

Lia huffed and threw herself down into the nearest unoccupied chair. “Why is the whole world against me?” she moaned.

“Karma?” Diana suggested helpfully, jumping into the conversation. The petite girl was a year younger than Lia, and another of her close friends. She was generally quiet, but loved to tease.

“See?” Lia said, curling into a ball. “All I want is an aspirin and a hot chocolate, but instead I get apocalyptic research and these buffoons getting on my case all the time.” She waved a hand vaguely in the direction of her friends.

“Too be fair,” Diana pointed out, “we don’t actually know there’s anything apocalyptic about it yet. That’s just the likeliest assumption, based on how these things usually go.”

Lia just glared. “I don’t care about being fair.”

“So,” Dawn said loudly, changing the subject. “What’s the what?”

“Yeah,” Myles added. “What is this research party for?”

Giles, who was generally recognized as the patriarch and administrative leader of the whole extended Scooby clan, laid out an apparently ancient manuscript on the table. “These are the Manchurian Scrolls. They contain vital information about mystical forces that have been increasing recently. They appear to be critical to our efforts to prevent any cataclysmic occurrences, but still require translation,” he explained.

The group set about the task, those who were best with languages attempting to work out the text while the rest looked up references to the prophecies and searched for any related sources they could find. They habitually divided into their own little groups, with the teens mostly divided from the adults.

Lia took an inordinate amount of pleasure in Myles sitting down next to her, despite the fact that he was merely taking his usual spot.

“I don’t care if he’s from England, that man’s first language is _not_ English. It’s book-speak,” he commented.

Lia laughed, and absent-mindedly fidgeted with her Celtic cross necklace. “Yeah, Giles should not be allowed to explain things. I’m pretty sure that statements could’ve been boiled down to ‘the scroll’s important; translate it or we’re screwed,’ but instead we get to play ‘count the big words’.”

“I still wanna know if there’s an apocalypse,” Lyn said.

“I don’t really care, so long as it’s not this week,” Lia replied. “I’m not fighting anything until my body decides to stop torturing me.”

“You said that before. Stop playing the suffering card already. You’re overdramatic and it’s getting really annoying,” Dawn muttered.

“I’m with you,” Diana agreed. “I’ve got a Chem test on Friday.”

“And you’re worrying why?” Lyn asked. “Everyone knows you’re frickin’ brilliant.”

“It’s like the definition of Diana,” Dawn added. She mimed opening a dictionary. “Diana Osbourne (noun): Small, female, redhead, quiet, brilliant.”

Lia smiled at the accuracy of the description. It was funny, she was so much like Aunt Willow it was freaky. No one ever would’ve guessed she was adopted.

Diana blushed. “I am not! I get good grades; it’s not the same thing. And that’s because I actually care about school, unlike you slackers. Hence the concern about the Chem test,” she protested.

“Naw, you’re a genius, Di. Accept it and move on,” Myles told her.

“I am not!” Diana exclaimed.

Myles rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say.”

“Aren’t we supposed to be working on the prophecy thing?” Diana asked, quickly changing the subject.

The tactic worked, and conversation subsided as the teens turned their attention back to the work at hand.


	2. Chapter 2

A week passed without much of any progress on deciphering the Manchurian Scrolls, and life continued on as usual for the Scoobies.

Well, mostly usual, anyway. For those who were still in school, the end of the year was approaching, with all the chaos that typically accompanied it. This particular Friday, two of the girls found themselves awaiting a fate that they melodramatically declared worse than death as they waited with their history class outside the auditorium.

Lia was shaking. She was seriously shaking. “I can’t do this,” she moaned.

“What?” Lyn asked, stopping briefly to talk as she passed on her way to 5th period. “Is there another apocalypse?”

Diana shot her a what-are-you-crazy look. “I wish. Though it might as well be.”

“Well, what is it then? What’s giving you guys such a wiggins?” Lyn asked impatiently.

“History test,” Lia replied in a dead voice.

“So, what’s the big deal? I thought you crazy people had a history test practically everyday. What’s with all the panic?” Lyn asked. She did have a point. The other girls were in a history class that was rumoured to be the hardest class in the school, and their teacher was indeed a bit test-happy.

Diana rolled her eyes. “That would be because it’s not just any test, it’s the AP test. A four-hour long, fucking hard test. That determines whether or not we get college credit for the class.”

Lyn turned to Lia, who fortunately wasn’t looking quite so catatonic as she had been a moment before. “Is my mind playing tricks on me, or did I just hear _Diana Osbourne_ swear?”

Diana thwapped her for the comment, but Lia just said morosely, “We’re going to our doom.”

“Good luck with that,” Lyn said cheerfully, waved, and walked off.

“That girl is evil,” Diana muttered. The proctor called them in, and they went to take their test.

* * *

When Lia and Diana finally got out of testing that afternoon, cursing whomever had decided to make AP test times continue on past the end of the school day, they headed over to the Summers house. Both had agreed not to even talk about the test for a long while, so they chatted about various inane things on the walk over.

But by the time they reached Lia’s room, she was looking morose again. She sighed, and flopped down on her bed.

“What’s wrong?” Diana asked, sitting down next to her.

“Myles,” was all Lia said.

Diana frowned. “Why? What’s happening with Myles?”

“Nothing,” Lia pouted. “Same as for the last, what is it, three months? It’s like that thing Aunt Willow once said – we’re in a holding pattern, only without any holding, or anything else. I’m tired of holding patternyness!”

“Just speak up then,” Diana advised. “Tell him you like him.”

“Easier said than done, Lia grumbled, raking a hand through her long black hair. “Just wait until _you’re_ in this position and see how well you do. It’s much with the awkwardness. And rather a bit of pointlessness, too, since attraction is already kinda mutually acknowledged. Or at least I think so. I know you guys keep telling me that he likes me back, but I have to admit that after this long, I’m starting to wonder.”

Diana gave her a sympathetic half-smile. “Oh, don’t get all doubty. He’s totally into you. It’s completely obvious. Well, at least to anyone not you.”

Lia scowled at her. “Are you saying there’s something wrong with me?”

“Not at all,” the redhead replied. “Just that as the person in question, you’re expected to be blind. _Don’t worry._ You’ll get your smoochies soon enough.” She grimaced. “And you know how hard it is for me to tell you this, considering he’s like my brother, and the whole thought of you two kinda borders on mental places I’d really rather not go.”

Lia smiled weakly back. “Thanks, Di. You’re the best. I’m just, ya know, nervous. And furthermore, the way things are going, I’m beginning to suspect that if I want any Myles-kissage, _I’m_ going to have to ask _him_ out. Not the way it’s supposed to work, peepz! And which, as previously mentioned, I’m way too scared to do.”

“I understand. But, _Lia._ Dead horse. Flog much?” Diana said pointedly.

“I know, I know,” the older girl said apologetically, standing up and beginning to pace around the room. “I’m so sorry, I’ve totally been talking your ear off. I just want him so much.” A moment later, she realized how that statement sounded and hastily corrected herself. “Aah, not supposed to come out like that. I mean, not like _that_, because eeeeww-.”

“Yes, thank you for that scary visual place,” Diana interjected sarcastically.

Lia winced. “Sorry! I was trying _not_ to bring that up, Even for me that’s … just, no! It’s sorta funny, actually, fantasizing and dreaming about a real life crush just feels somehow wrong. Let alone any … steamier imaginings.” With a slight laugh, she turned and gestured towards her wall of BJT fanart. “Hence the continued Daemon-love. I’ll tell you something, be wise while you still can, and stick with fictional crushes. It’s so much less messy and painful.”

“I can imagine,” Diana laughed.

“Thanks for indulging my need for serious girl talk, Di.”

“No problem. I know how that is.”

“Now, all I need to do is get Dawn to get off my back about Myles. Or at least, more importantly, convince her to leave him alone. She keeps threatening to hit him if I don’t ask him out.”

Diana laughed at the thought.

Lia scowled, and plopped down on her window seat. “No, really,” she groused. “Yesterday before school, I was over in the art room. She comes in, asks me, ‘can I assault Myles’. I say no, she then asks if Lyn can. At least that time she went away after that. Usually she’s not nearly so agreeable.”

“Ouch,” Diana commented sympathetically, but she was struggling not to laugh.

“Yeah,” Lia muttered. “Darn sister. Some days I just wish she would’ve stayed a ball of energy.”

“Where are Dawn and Katelyn anyway?” Diana asked.

Lia thought for a moment. “Uh, I think they went out Bronzing. Which is actually sounding like a pretty good idea right about now. I’d better do a quick patrol first, but then you wanna join them?”

The younger girl smiled. “Sure. Sounds like a plan!”

“K then, just give me a sec,” Lia said. She threw on a green tank top emblazoned with the words “Kiss Me, I’m Irish” and a pair of black low rise jeans. She then pulled out the weapons bag she kept under her bed. She fastened a large silver cross on a chain at her neck, and fished out two stakes, one of which she tossed up to her friend. “Di?”

“Yeah?”

“Want a knife too?”

“Sure.” Diana had developed a bit of a talent for throwing knives.

Lia pulled out the weapon in question and handed it over. Straightening up, she kicked the bag back under her bed and shrugged on a black leather jacket. “Great. Let’s go.”

* * *

“Ya know,” Lia commented, half an hour and seven of Sunnydale’s twelve cemeteries later, “Mom once said Uncle Xander had told her he wished dating was more like slaying.”

“O-kay?” Diana responded.

Lia giggled. “Uh huh. ‘Simple, direct, stake to the heart, no fuss, no mess.’ I kinda know the feeling, but I’d hardly call an apocalypse simple or no fuss.”

Diana started to respond, but ended up just eep-ing and leaping behind a convenient tombstone when a newly risen vampire charged at the girls.

“Of course – oof –,” Lia grunted as the fledgling knocked the wind out of her with a well placed punch, but recovered almost instantaneously and continued the conversation as she kicked the vamp down, “that was when – uh – he was going out with Aunt Cordy, so I can almost – understand.” She plunged her stake into the fledgling’s heart, and as it turned to dust she turned away to help Diana up.

“Am I the only one weirded out by some of the stuff about our parents when they were our age? Because the whole idea of that couple just boggles the mind,” Diana commented as they continued on past rows of headstones.

“Ohhh yeah,” the damphyr agreed. “It wigs me too. It’s like the more I hear, the less I want to know.” They finished their rounds of that particular graveyard, and she asked, “So, on to Restfield then?”

“But of course,” Diana said. “What really freaks me though, is not only that Uncle Xander and Aunt Cordy dated, but the reason they broke it off is because he was cheating on her with _my mom_, of all people.”

“This is why adults should not be allowed to have had childhoods,” Lia commented. Suddenly she frowned, and looked to her friend in confusion. “Why’s my pocket vibrating?”

Diana smirked at her friend’s confusion. “Phone.”

Lia slapped her forehead, “Oh, doh!” She pulled out the cell, and flipped it open to answer it. “Hello? … What? … Yeah, kay … yeah, Diana and I’ll be right over. Kay, bye.” She snapped the phone shut, and tucked it away with a muttered curse. “Damnit, there goes our evening,” she pouted.

“What?” Diana asked.

Lia sighed. “We’re wanted at the Magic Box. They’ve had a breakthrough on a prophecy.”


	3. Chapter 3

Lia and Diana left immediately when they got the phone call, but even so they were last to arrive at the Magic Box, and hurriedly squeezed in between Myles and Dawn at the back table. When the group had settled somewhat, Giles pulled out the original text of the scrolls and several pages of notes, and stood up before the assembly.

“From what we’ve been able to determine so far, the centerpiece of the Manchurian Scrolls seems to be one particular prophecy, foretelling a catastrophic demon invasion,” Giles began.

“See, I knew it was an apocalypse,” Lyn muttered. “Did we really need to spend two whole weeks figuring that out?”

“Yes, thank you so much for that observation,” Giles said dryly. “As I was saying….”

Lyn quieted at his pointed look, miming zipping her lips with an innocently sweet smile, but did not really appear at all repentant.

Lia giggled. “We are terrible,” she commented.

“Pretty much,” Myles agreed.

“In any case,” Giles continued, “we have a rough translation of this keystone prophecy. Unfortunately, some of the nuances have been lost in translation from the original, which was in Bimaokuo, an obscure demon dialect of Mandarin Chinese. The original rhyming scheme is lost altogether-”

Most of the teens snerked at this pronouncement, and Lia fought to hold back a fit of laughter as she caught Uncle Xander pulling a face and Aunt Anya mouthing “get on with it.”

Giles glared at them all, and finished, “But I believe we have ascertained the basic meaning.” He recited:

_On the seventh fortnight of the seventh Danarian year  
A rift shall open unto Hell itself  
Releasing a horde of demons such as the world has never seen  
Seek for the child of Champions, born of living and undead  
The Damphyr alone holds the power to stop them  
But linger beyond twelve days, and it cannot be undone_

The group sat attentively as Giles slowly read out the rough translation of the prophecy. But as soon as he finished speaking, everyone began talking at once.

“What’s a Danarian year?”

“When’s this supposed to happen?”

“It’s got all the cryptic and the demony and the end of the world doom and gloom. Is this really helpful? It just sounds like every other prophecy out there to me.”

Diana leaned over and whispered impudently to the other teens, “And most importantly, will there be a test on this? Honestly, I feel like I’m in class.”

Dawn, sitting on the other side of Diana from Lia, replied, “Are you kidding? If we were in class, we’d never be all engaged and paying attention like this.”

Diana’s only response was to raise an eyebrow at her as Giles motioned for quiet and the group calmed like obedient pupils, furthering the parallel (or detracting from it, depending on how orderly a class one had in mind).

Lia herself was only vaguely aware of the conversations around her, either Giles’s explanations of various elements of the prophecy, or her friends’ light debate about the nature of the meeting. Her mind had latched onto one word of the cryptic passage that was frighteningly, unmistakably clear, and clutched it in an uncompromising death grip. _Damphyr. The Damphyr alone holds the power to stop them._ There was only one way to interpret _that_: the prophecy was referring to her. With a peculiar feeling of detachment, Lia wondered if this was what going into shock felt like.

Gradually she became aware of the others again. She regarded their casual conversation with growing horror; they acted like it was all just ho-hum, end of the world again, what else is new.

She wanted to scream. _You don’t get it! It’s different this time! (It’s me this time.)_

She wanted to cry. _I can’t do this. It’s all on my shoulders this time. I don’t know how to handle this kind of responsibility._

She wanted _out_ of this sucky life. _I wish I could be just some normal schoolgirl. Some shallow teen who cares about nothing more than clothes and dates – and doesn’t _have_ to do anything more. I want to be anyone but me. Anyone who doesn’t have higher powers and grand fate meddling in her life. I may be a Champion, but I’m only 17. And now I must sound terribly self-pitying and emo._

She wanted to run. She wanted to just break down. She wanted – she didn’t know what the heck she wanted.

She turned the words of the prophecy sickly over in her mind for a few more minutes, then did the only thing she could think of; she bolted.

The discussion was still in full swing, but Lia was already on the periphery of the group, and she was able to quietly slip out the magic shop’s back entrance without attracting undue attention. It was nearly 2 in the morning by this point, but rather than going home she decided to circle back to the cemetery where she’d been before getting called away. She slipped her stake out of her pocket; news of this kind prompted a definite need to kill things. Pummeling a few vampires was sounding very good right now, if nothing else to distract her from tense and uneasy thoughts. Though she would be hard pressed to admit it even to herself, truth be told she was very close to breaking down right about now.

Not that she hadn’t kind of known all along that it would eventually come to something like this. After all, she was the only damphyr in recorded history. A child of vampire and human (vampire and Slayer, even, to make it even more sordid) wasn’t supposed to be _possible_, even according to the freaky supernatural version of the laws of biology. So of course she had to have some big destiny. She just hadn’t expected it to be quite this big. At this point she was scared out of her mind.

Two hours and several cemeteries later, she still wasn’t feeling much better, but she knew she’d be regretting this in the morning, so she walked home and went to bed. Nonetheless, it was a long time before sleep came.


	4. Chapter 4

The next day, and Lia was possibly feeling even worse. A sense of dread had settled in around her, making her feel isolated from her whole world. She even found herself almost wishing she had school, so that she could at least bury herself in work. Searching around for some distraction, any distraction, she turned some music on, cranked the volume up, and flopped back on her bed. She pulled out an assignment for her Advanced Composition class, but after staring blankly at it for a minute or two, she laid the paper aside and began absently plaiting loose braids into her long dark hair.

A knock sounded on the door. “Come in,” she called automatically, then immediately regretted it as she looked up to see her mother enter. “Oh, hey Mom.”

“Could you turn that music down? You’ll hurt your ears,” Buffy said.

“Mum!” Lia exclaimed, but reluctantly obliged.

“I’m your mother; it’s my job to say these things,” Buffy told her with a smile. “What is this anyway?”

“Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash,” Lia replied casually.

“What?!”

Lia smirked. “Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash, by the Pogues. It’s an old Irish Punk Rock album. Uncle Doyle gave it to me last time I was in LA,” she explained.

“I see,” Buffy said in a skeptical sort of tone.

“What?” Lia said defensively. “It’s fun music. Lot’s of energy and a great beat.”

“Nothing,” Buffy replied. “You just have … interesting taste.”

“Hey!” Lia protested. “It’s not like I have the worst musical taste in this family.”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “I can’t argue with you there. Has your father been playing Manilow again?”

“Not recently, thankfully,” Lia replied. “Now why are you really here? I doubt you just stopped by to criticize my music.”

“Just checking in on you. I wanted to see how you were doing. What’re you up to?”

“Supposedly or actually?”

“How about both?”

“_Trying_ to work on my homework, but really mostly just playing with my hair and going over the new ballroom dance routines in my head.”

“And how’re you holding up?”

Lia sighed. “If I said ‘fine’, what are the chances you’d believe me?”

Buffy laughed. “When you put it like that? Absolutely nil.” She sat down on the bed beside her daughter.

“Figures,” Lia pouted. “I’m … rather overwhelmed. I’m afraid I’m going to let everyone down. It’s like … it’s all on my shoulders now, and I don’t know what to do,” she admitted timidly.

“That’s to be expected,” Buffy said gently. “I know exactly where you’re coming from. Don’t worry, it gets easier. Really. Anticipating what’s going to happen is always the most daunting part.”

“But I should be prepared for this!” Lia exclaimed frustratedly. She tried to blink back the tears that were threatening, but to no avail. “I’ve been dealing with supernatural freakishness all my life; I’ve even knew something like this was coming. I wouldn’t _exist_ if I didn’t have some big destiny. So why the heck can’t I deal with this?”

“Because you’re only human … I mean, metaphorically speaking. You wouldn’t be sane if you didn’t get scared. I still do, every time. I’d be more worried if you weren’t because it would suggest you weren’t taking this seriously.”

“I feel like I’ve been fooling myself for so long,” Lia burst out. Oh god, here came the waterworks. “I say I’m not like other girls, but I really thought I was … convinced myself I was just – just some normal girl with a few freaky supernatural aspects in her life … that the demon-hunting was some … extra extracurricular or something. It’s not _I’m not._ I’m different. And I thought it didn’t matter, b-but it does. I haven’t been taking it seriously, so now my time has come, and I’m totally n-not prepared.”

“A hypothetical apocalypse doesn’t have the impact of a real one. It’s not surprising that the weight of it is hitting you now. It doesn’t mean you’re not prepared; I have every confidence that you are. As you said, you’ve had your whole life training for this, which is an advantage I didn’t have. You’re readier than you think. And you’re not alone in this; don’t think that for a minute,” Buffy soothed.

“But the prophecy named _me_,” Lia interjected with a sniffle, leaning into her mother’s embrace.

“Prophecies don’t know everything,” the elder warrior counseled her. “They’re cryptic and often deceptive and only a very sketchy picture of the situation. Sure, they’re true, but not nearly the whole truth. There’s never been a prophecy about ‘The Chosen One and her friends’, but I’d never have done it without their help. We’re all here for you. I’ve carried the weight of the world entirely too much in my time. I couldn’t have borne the weight without support, and no way am I letting it fall on your shoulders.”

Lia smiled weakly. “Thanks, Mom. You’re pretty cool sometimes, you know that? What with your being all adult-person-like, sometimes I forget you do know what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah, occasionally I do. Believe it or not, I’ve been where you’re going through. And as far as I can see, you’re doing pretty well. Hey, if you can avoid burning down or blowing up any public property, you’re ahead of me.”

Lia managed a watery laugh. “There is that. …I needed that. Thanks for the heart-to-heart. I love you, Mom.”

“Anytime. I love you too, Lia.” Buffy stood up and crossed to the doorway.

Hearing her sister and friends’ voices filtering in from downstairs, Lia got to her feet as well. _Oh, right, ritual Saturday morning-ish hang-out time. About time I made an appearance._ She stopped short as she caught her reflection in the mirror on the back of her door. No way was she facing her friends with puffy eyes and tear-tracked cheeks. “Mom?”

Buffy paused halfway down the hall. “Yes?”

“Can you tell the guys I’ll be down in a little while?”

“No problem.”

“Thanks,” the teen replied with a grateful smile, and closed her door.

She should’ve known her friends wouldn’t be satisfied with the message. This observation came too late, however, as it only entered her mind when she heard new footsteps approaching her door. “Go away,” she snapped without looking up.

“Sorry, no can do,” Myles replied from her doorway. His tone was genuinely apologetic, and he continued, “I’ve been ordered to relay a message from Dawn.”

“Why couldn’t she tell me herself?” the Damphyr asked irritably.

“Uh… I think she thought you’d be less likely to kick me out,” he said sheepishly.

“Bloody interfering sisters,” she muttered. Unfortunately, Dawn’s reasoning also happened to be right accurate … which made this all the more embarrassing on several counts. She continued to avoid looking at him, and began idly twirling a pencil between her fingers, but she did ask flatly, “Fine, what’s the message?”

“She says, and I quote, ‘if you’ve fulfilled your bitch quota yet, it’s about time you stopped being a troglodyte and acknowledged our existence’,” he reported.

“Well, tell her I’ll be thirty-one flavors of bitch if I bloody well want to, and what part of being anti-social don’t you understand?” Lia snapped.

“Don’t shoot the messenger!” Myles exclaimed.

Lia exhaled heavily. “Sorry, I just _really_ don’t want company right now.”

He finally emerged from the doorway and walked over to her. “Lia, what’s wrong?” he asked concernedly.

“Did you not get the whole ‘what part of being anti-social don’t you understand’ thing?” she said acidly.

“The part where it’s really not like you,” he replied gently.

“Myles, meet rhetorical question. Rhetorical question; Myles,” she snarked.

“That’s sarcasm and evasion, not an answer. Lia, what’s up?”

“You mean besides apocalypse, I don’t know how I’m going to get through this, and, _oh yeah_, I really don’t like people seeing me break down. Call me irrational.” Because despite the walls of sarcasm and vitriol she was trying to hide behind, she was crying again. _Damn it._

“Oh,” he replied rather ineffectually.

She pulled away, retreating from him, hating being seen like this.

“Lia,” he repeated, trying to get through to her. The soft call only made her draw away further, facing the wall as if hiding her face could erase all evidence of her tears.

She felt the mattress shift under added weight as he sat down beside her. A gentle but firm hand on her shoulder forced her to turn to face him.

“Lia, are you okay? What’s wrong? – I’m sorry, those were just about the stupidest questions ever, weren’t they? But it’ll be okay,” Myles awkwardly attempted to comfort her.

“Yeah … right. Like … hell it will,” she gasped out.

“Don’t say that. You _will_ get through this. …okay, I’ll stop trying to be comforting now, clearly I’m not doing a very good job of it.”

Lia let out a choked giggle between sobs.

She slumped against him. “Hey,” he said softly, settling his arms around her. She made no response, but settled more fully against him, pressing her face into his shoulder.

Eventually she calmed, but was reluctant to move her position. Thankfully, he made no move to change the arrangement.

“You know,” she eventually murmured, reluctantly lifting her head to look at him, “someone’s probably going to come up here and see us like this, and leap instantly into Conclusionville.”

“Is that a problem?” he asked lightly.

For the first time, a smile played across Lia’s lips. “Not at all … I mean, so long as you don’t think it is … I mean … does this mean we’re-?” She faltered.

Myles smiled. “Definitely.”


	5. Chapter 5

“You guys are so cute,” Diana whisper-squealed, turning around in her seat in their AP European History class to talk to Lia.

Lia laughed. “I’m so glad you approve,” she shot back.

The redhead pouted, pretending to be hurt by the sarcastic tone. “No really, you should’ve seen you at lunch today. You just plop down in his lap, all happy and comfortable, and Myles gets this smug look, like ‘look what I got’.”

“Ah, but for me to have seen would require me not to have been in my position, and that would have been unacceptable,” Lia remarked sagely. She smiled fondly, remembering the scene.

_The group of friends sat at the end of the hallway by the art room, a lunch spot they’d commandeered for their own at the beginning of the year for two years running. Lia and Myles were at one end of the rather squished ‘circle’, slightly set back from the others._

“_You haven’t touched your food!” Lia exclaimed, lightly thwapping her boyfriend’s arm in admonishment as she realized that with five minutes before classes resumed he had yet to eat anything._

_Myles shrugged. “I’ll eat in Psych.”_

_Lia frowned. “I know Ms. Cullen doesn’t much care what people do in her class, but I can’t imagine she’d be happy about that.”_

“_Yeah, I promised her I’d never do it again,” Myles said casually. “But there were extenuating circumstances; I was cuddling with you. Food, I can get anytime. You, not so much.”_

_Lia’s heart did a strange little ‘wibble’ thing. Why was he so sweet? She laid her head on his shoulder. “Aw, you’re so sweet!”_

_Myles half-smirked. “I try.”_

“_And here I thought it just came natural,” Lia laughed. Then the warning bell rang, and her smile turned into a pout. “Ungh,” she groaned. “Don’t wanna go.” She reluctantly dragged herself to her feet, grabbing her lunch bag along the way, as the whole group of teens scattered down the halls._

_He followed her to her locker at the base of the hall, and waited while she returned her lunch bag and pulled out her class materials. She closed the locker, set the pile of textbooks and notebooks on the floor beside her, and stepped towards him. Myles enfolded her in his arms. After a moment, she tilted her head up for a kiss, which he gladly obliged her._

“_See you after class?” she asked hopefully when they broke apart._

_Myles nodded. “Of course.”_

_They parted ways there. Lia picked up her books and headed off to Euro with a smile._

Diana waved a hand in front of the Damphyr’s face. “Earth to Lia.”

“Wha? …Oh, sorry Di.” She pulled herself out of the memory and refocused on the classroom with effort.

Diana rolled her eyes at her friend’s spaciness. “If I weren’t so happy for you, I swear, you would’ve driven me nuts by now. Both of you. That little secretive smile you seem to have all the time these days is extremely annoying. And the blank stare? Not so attractive.”

Lia had the grace to look sheepish.

“If you weren’t my friends, I mean,” Diana conceded. “It’s muchly good to see you happy. We were worried about you for a little while there.”

“_I_ was worried about me for a while,” Lia admitted quietly.

“Yeah, but look at you now. You’re _glowing_, Lia,” Diana said fondly.

“I am?” Lia asked incredulously. “Really? …I suppose I am.” The slight, satisfied smile that had become a constant companion in recent days – the very one that Diana said was ‘secretive’ – returned to her lips.

“Diana? Lia? Focus on the class, girls,” Mr. Proem said warningly, calling them to attention.

“Sorry.”

“Sorry.” They gave their teacher twin repentant expressions and reluctantly abandoned their conversation.

Keeping one ear on Mr. Proem’s lecture about the Prague Spring, Lia pulled out the sketchbook that she always carried along with her textbooks and notebooks. (Dawn tended to give her a hard time about ‘don’t you already have enough to carry?’ While Lia agreed that AP classes gave such a load that they might secretly be a weight-training program, she refused to give up the sketchbook. Considering she had opportunity to make good use of it most days, it was totally worth it.) She set it on her desk next to her Euro text – a tome titled _Western Civilization_ but semi-affectionately referred to by the students as ‘Big Jack’ – and flipped it open to a fresh page.

Glancing back between her friend and the page, she began sketching out Diana’s likeness.

As she drew, she reflected on the younger girl’s words. _We were worried about you for a little while there._ Honestly, they had reason to be. She didn’t know how close she’d come to cutting herself off from everyone else. She could’ve very easily made herself miserable. She already had a sort of constant countdown in her head: _According to Giles’s latest calculations, I have 6 … 5 … 4 days left until the vortex opens. And no progress made on determining what the heck I’m supposed to or going to do then, on how to fight it or what power I have that I can do what no one else can._ She was far from forgetting the situation, and there was definitely a masochistic temptation to dwell on that. But it really wouldn’t do any good. She had her friends to thank for distracting her, dragging her mind back to the real world.

Family, really; the Scoobies were more family than friends. There was some cheesy, feel-good saying along those lines, wasn’t there? “Friends are the family you make for yourself”, or some such. In this case it was very true. Lia figured it was something to do with the ‘demony stuff’, as they semi-fondly called it. The combination of mortal peril and shared secrecy really promoted bonding.

Consider the people who she’d grown up around: Aunt Willow and Uncle Oz, Aunt Anya and Uncle Xander, a motley assortment who’d helped to raise her and Dawn and as years went on the others as well. They were all her mother’s old friends, people who had helped Buffy as far back as her own high school days, who had been mentored and essentially adopted by Giles and Jenny. And here they still all were. And somehow she had a feeling that it would be the same with her and Dawn, Myles, Diana, and Lyn. _Get drawn in to the good fight and this crazy family, and you can never go back._ Well, if the world didn’t end first.

She finished Diana’s profile and decided to add another face to the sketch. Was it a mark of her increasing skill as an artist that she could accurately draw Myles completely from memory, or was that just sad?

She shrugged, and decided that it was probably slightly pathetic but entirely excusable. _Just typical teen-girl-in-love behavior, I reckon. At least I’m normal in some ways._

It was Myles who was most responsible for keeping her engaged in her life. Despite the unspeakably awkward start, their fledgling relationship was a major grounding point for her. Less than two weeks had passed, but already she didn’t know what she’d do without him. And the excitement and novelty of it all kept her running to Lyn, Diana, and Dawn for major girl-talk.

She was nearly done when the bell signaling end of class rang, so she quickly put the finishing touches on her drawing, tore out the page, and handed it to Diana.

“Oh, thanks!” Diana exclaimed. She examined the sketch in awe. “You’re getting so good!”

Lia flushed at the compliment, and sort of shrugged. “I’m not that great.”

Diana thwapped her lightly. “You underestimate yourself. This is perfect.”

Lia smiled to herself; she knew the other girl would like it. Diana and Myles had a sort of a special bond. Diana’s parents had been killed by vampires when she was nine and she was taken in by Lia’s Aunt Willow and Uncle Oz – right around the time that Myles was first discovering his half-demon heritage. They banded together, protecting each other when they couldn’t really protect themselves, and had developed a close, brother/sister dynamic. It helped that Aunt Willow had taken Myles in as almost a second child; Myles, whose mother didn’t pay him much attention, spent more time at Willow and Diana’s house than his own nowadays.

Also, Lia had the perfect comeback to Diana’s prodding. “Really? Well, you won’t admit you’re a genius.”

Diana rolled her eyes. “Oh no, not _this_ again.”

Lia childishly stuck her tongue out at her friend. “You started it.”

“You started the denial,” Diana accused, laughing.

“So you admit you’re in denial?” Lia shot back.

“Do _you_?” Diana returned, pulling her schoolbooks into a pile along with Lia’s drawing.

Lia ignored the comment and mentally reviewed her schedule as the two girls picked up their books and binders and headed out into the halls. “Ooh, I’ve got my free next!” Lia remarked happily.

“I knew that,” Diana said.

Lia glared playfully at her. “Yeah, well not all of us are blessed with your ability to remember the schedules of everyone they meet,” she teased. “Hmm, I could hang in the computer lab, or should I go stalk Lyn, Myles, and Dawn in Physics? ‘Tis the question.”

“Well, I suspect Jenny’d be more amenable to having you around than Ms. Anders,” Diana pointed out.

“True,” Lia nodded. “But what’s the point of school if not to bother unsuspecting teachers?”

“I believe there’s supposed to be something about learning,” Diana said.

Lia shook her head dismissively. “Lies, all lies!” the brunette joked. She sort of sighed. “I suppose I’ll be good and not interrupt others’ quest for higher knowledge … this time. Also, I feel like messing around on the web.”

“Sounds good,” Diana said, adjusting her precarious tower of books. “Well, I’m off to Analysis of Lit.”

Lia waved as she turned down the hall to the computer lab, pausing to drop stuff off at her locker on the way. “K then. See ya.”


	6. Chapter 6

Second period, Advanced Composition. Lia generally liked the class, but today Ms. Salen’s lecture just seemed boring and pointless. Sure, it would helpful to know exactly what the final would cover – if the teacher hadn’t gone over all this before, some parts multiple times. It was shaping up to be one of those days that dragged on forever, and the first class of the day was only halfway through.

“Sometimes, it seems like my entire life is spent in school,” Lia groaned.

“Which is why you spend so much of it not following the class?” Myles teased, leaning over her desk to peer at what she had out today: in this case, her Algebra 2 final review sheet. “Ooh, living dangerously!”

She pouted. “I’m _good_ at multi-tasking. What’s the sense of wasting time when it means I can have less school stuff to do later; it already takes up too much of my life. And what do you mean by _that_?”

Myles merely raised an eyebrow. “Math in Salen’s class? That could get you crucified.”

Lia snorted. “Not likely.” But she couldn’t deny that she quickly flipped open her Advanced Composition binder to cover her calculator and worksheet whenever Ms. Salen walked by. The ongoing Math Department vs. English Department feud was a source of great amusement to students, who were more often than not used as pawns. It had reached epic proportions in the rivalry between Ms. Salen and Mr. Arden; Lia happened to have them both, for Comp and Algebra respectively. She still wasn’t quite sure if that was good fortune or bad. “Anyways, I just have to show her the story problems trashing ‘cat-loving, Birkenstocks-wearing English teachers’, and she’ll given me extra credit for reporting it.”

“I really don’t think the extra-credit offer works if she catches you working on those problems in her class,” Myles objected.

Lia flipped over the math sheet, closed up her calculator, and stuck them back into her pile of books. “No matter, I’m done now anyway. See, effective time management.”

“I’m with Lia on this one,” Dan Colray pitched in from Myles’s other side. He was Myles’s best friend, whom he could usually be found with when not hanging around the freak show that was Lia’s friends. (Sometimes it seemed to Lia that her boyfriend spent more time with her friends than she did – which made no sense to her, particularly from a self-preservation perspective. What kind of guy wants to spend his time with a bunch of crazy girls? …Not that Dan was much better on that count, actually. The latter boy had formed a band with Lyn and Dawn, ‘Flaming Death Toast’.) “School takes up way too much of our time.”

“Point,” Myles conceded.

“Oh, so you’ll agree with him but not with me?” Lia teased.

“Exactly,” Myles smirked. “I bet one of these days the world is gonna end and we won’t be able to stop it because we’re stuck in school.”

Lia froze. “Don’t say that!” she hissed, her tone serious and deadly. “Don’t even talk like that!”

The boys exchanged startled, bewildered looks. _What was that?_

Then Myles turned to her in surprise and no small amount of confusion. Apocalypse jokes were par for the course among their group, so common they weren’t even funny anymore rather repeated anyway because they’d become a matter of tradition. And Lia herself was the most frequent offender on that count, making her panicked response even more inexplicable. “What?” he asked.

“Do you realize the portal is supposed to open tonight?” she demanded.

“Yes, I’m aware of that,” he said calmly. “Oh, _Lia_…. Is that what this is about?” She’d been acting completely normal until then, but apparently she was more bothered than she was letting on. It bothered him that she wouldn’t admit to being less than fine, but he understood her need to be strong. “It’ll work out fine. I’ve got you covered, we all do. Don’t panic,” he soothed, gently laying a hand on her shoulder.

The tension drained fro her frame, and she slumped against him. Her expression flashed from panicked to chagrined in an instant. “Uh, sorry…. Can we just rewind Lia’s little freak-out? I’m kinda stressed,” she said sheepishly.

“Sure, that’s understandable,” he agreed. “Hey, do you want to go do something after school today?”

She considered, and sighed heavily. “Tempting, but was it feasible? “I dunno, I’ve got dance practice, and then a lot of studying to do. I don’t think I’ll even have time to patrol, which is really bad. …But we could probably squeeze something in for a half hour or so before dance. I could definitely use it.”

“Sounds workable,” he agreed. “Want to go to that coffee shop down the street again?”

“Yeah, I liked that yesterday. Actually, what would be really nice is if we made a tradition of it. I mean, it’s just a suggestion,” she said.

He nodded. “Check, standing date at the Corner Coffeehouse after school, starting this afternoon. Funny, I was just thinking the same thing about making it a regular occurrence.”

She smiled. “Well, you know what they say about great minds….”

“They roll in the same gutters?” Dan had decided to pop back into their conversation.

“Quiet, you,” Lia retorted half-heartedly.

“Do you want me to patrol for you tonight?” Myles asked considerately.

“Ohhh…. That would be _wonderful_. Thanks so much,” she replied gratefully.

“It’s no problem,” he said dismissively.

“It’s still why I adore you,” Lia replied.

“And that’s my cue to tune out,” Dan muttered, pulling a face. Lia and Myles opted to ignore him.

“That makes me feel so much better,” Lia continued. “Just…, do me a favor? Take Dawn or someone with you. Not that I don’t trust you or anything, I know you can handle yourself fine on your own, I just….” She trailed off, unable to quite find the end of the end of her thought.

“I get it,” Myles said. “I can do that. Besides, you’re cute when you’re all protective.”

Lia blushed. “Um, thanks?” After a moment she returned to a teasing tone. “Now, stop doing things to make me eternally grateful! I’m not sure I’m comfortable with this precedent you’re setting; I can’t keep up.”

Myles laughed and half-smirked. “I dunno, I kinda like the idea of you being in my debt…,” he teased.

“Don’t even go there,” Lia laughed.

“No, I’m definitely liking this concept. It has so many possibilities,” he replied.

Caught up in their banter, they were startled when the bell rang, signaling the end of the class. They gladly got to their feet and joined the wave of students pouring out the door. Each one kept one arm around their books and the other around each other.

He walked her to her next period, AP Art. She set down her books on one of the tables and returned to her boyfriend waiting in the hall.

She enfolded herself in his embrace, then tilted her head up in a gesture that was an explicit, though unspoken, request for kisses.

He looked almost surprised. “Lucky me,” he murmured, slightly incredulous.

“No, lucky _me_,” she corrected. He had such a talent for saying things that made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It was incredible.

He smiled warmly in response. And then he kissed her.

* * *

_This was the last straw,_ Lia thought wearily as she walked home from dance practice. She loved ballroom dance; it was one of the few sports she could actually do, allowing her to make use of her enhanced physical abilities with out running into trouble for being freakishly strong.

Today’s practice, however, was giving her a whole new set of problems. The trouble was not physical, but social, and could be summed up in two words: Kyle Cole. He was her partner in several routines, and was both an excellent dancer and a casual friend. He was _also_ a complete nerd and slightly socially inept. And she was pretty sure he had a crush on her.

Which revelation put her in a state of discomfort bordering on alarm. Quite frankly, she was thwapping herself about not noticing it earlier, and afraid her failure to do so might have resulted in what could have been construed as leading him on. But she simply hadn’t known where the line between friendly playfulness and flirting was drawn until it had been blatantly crossed. While she would admit (if only under duress) that she was quite pretty, she had also gained a reputation as the local freak, so she was not at all used to this kind of problem. _I just wonder how he managed not to notice that I have a boyfriend. I thought Myles and I were kind of, well, obvious,_ she mused.

A sudden noise from across the empty lot she was passing tore her from her thoughts. She glanced around the darkened streets. Finding nothing, she let her lead brick of a bookbag drop to the ground with a shrug of her shoulders, and set off to investigate. Her hand slid automatically to her stake as she started across the overgrown lot.

She hadn’t made it quite halfway across when a large demon came crashing out of the bushes. _Oh, shit._ Lia’s hand left the stake to reach for a dagger instead. _ Good thing I happened to bring this today, then. But still, blarg._

She brought the blade slashing up as the creature rushed her, blocking the strike of its scaled olive claw.

The demon staggered back, and Lia took a moment to get a better measure of her opponent. The thing towered over her at nearly seven feet and stocky. Its scaly greenish skin cracked and peeled in places, and a row of grey spines ran from just above its narrow black eyes to the back of its neck, matching the six-inch claws on its hands and feet. A dark, viscous blood was beginning to ooze from its injured hand.

All this she took in in an instant, mentally classifying it under _nasty, unknown_, as she wiped the black fluid from her blade and prepared to strike again. The damphyr let her face shift to reveal her own demonic heritage, with fangs extended and eyes tinted golden to show that she too was a deadly predator. She struck out with a high kick before the demon had a chance to recover.

The beast fell back again, but then it charged forward with a roar. This time the swipe of its arm connected.

Lia was knocked to the ground, winded. As the demon advanced on her, she swept her dagger forward, simultaneously planting her other arm under herself and using it to push herself up as she sprang to her feet. She cursed as loose waves of her hair swung into her face, then dived at it again, aiming her dagger at its stomach.

She wasn’t fast enough. Her blade only slashed through a dry fold of peeling skin before a clawed arm coming dangerously close to her head forced her to reverse direction. She ducked under the blow, tucked her body in, and rolled between its hulking legs. There were _some_ advantages to being small.

The demon seemed confused for a minute, clearly not a brainiac type, but quickly turned towards her when she stabbed at its back.

This time Lia didn’t hesitate a second. She advanced quickly, striking with legs and blade until she had forced it back almost to the brush at the edge of the lot. Finally, she knocked the beast to the ground and plunged the dagger into its heart. It shuddered, spasmed, and was still.

Lia pulled her blade loose, wiping it on the grass. She turned back to deal with the corpse – only to find it stirring.

_Oh shit! It’s one of those ones that_ won’t die._ Okay, next strategy._ She planted a foot on its chest before it could get back up. As she leaned down and brought her blade out, its arm came up. She sliced into the thick neck and severed its head, but not before it was able to slash several gashes into her midriff with its claws.

_Damn._ She wasn’t too worried about the cuts – with her healing, they’d be gone in a few days – but she’d really liked that shirt.

As she wiped the dagger clean (fairly thoroughly, because the thick black blood was just the sort of thing that usually turned out to be either poisonous or highly corrosive), she kept a careful eye out to make sure the thing stayed dead this time. When she was satisfied there was no chance of it getting up, she dragged the body into the bushes, kicking the head off to the side a few yards. She _so_ did not have time to dispose of it properly just now.

That done, she trudged back across the lot and hefted up her backpack with a groan. She’d have to head to the magic shop to report and get patched up. And after that, she still had an essay to write for English.

As she adjusted her course to detour to the Magic Box, she was hit with the realization that this encounter probably meant the portal was open. She groaned. No, this was not a good night at all.


	7. Chapter 7

Friday afternoon, Lia and Myles celebrated the end of finals and another school year … with the exact same thing they did every day now, meeting at the Corner Coffeehouse. Their standing date was fast becoming the highlight of Lia’s days.

She arrived at their usual table out on the sidewalk to find him already sitting there.

“Hey,” Myles greeted her.

Lia plopped down across from him, and flashed a smile. “Hey! What’s up?”

He smiled back, and clasped her hand. “Oh, not much. The usual, ya know.”

“Yep,” she nodded. “Hey, we survived another year. That’s news.”

“Time for a victory celebration?” he asked.

“I’m thinking so,” she agreed.

“Flaming Death Toast is playing here tonight. D’you wanna go?” he suggested.

“I dunno,” Lia hedged. “I love seeing the gang play and all, but I’m just not really in the mood today. Social-y stuff isn’t really appealing to me; I wanna do something that’s just the two of us,” she decided.

“Sure. Any ideas?” Myles agreed amiably.

“Uh… I don’t know?” There was a moment of silence, then Lia brightened. “We could go for a hike!”

“Sounds good to me,” he agreed.

She absently pulled off her sweatshirt, a garment too heavy for the warm spring day, and tied it around her waist. Being practical-minded, she quickly ran through preparations in her head. “Great,” she said cheerfully. “We’ll have to get some stuff. We should probably go now so we don’t get started too late.”

“Okay,” he replied.

She quirked an eyebrow at him. “Why are you so _agreeable_?”

Myles smirked slightly, and replied, “Because I’m indecisive. It’s easier if you just figure things out.”

Lia burst out laughing. “Well,” she sputtered once she had caught her breath, “I _meant_ that as a rhetorical question, but,” – she shrugged – “hey, works for me.” She pushed back her chair and stood up. “Let’s go.”

He stood as well, and she stepped across the small space between them. Leaning into him, she tilted her head up to look directly at her boyfriend. “I’m really glad you’re here, ya know. Don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Myles smiled down at her, and she snuggled closer. Then she sighed, “We really should go.”

He nodded slightly, and started to step back.

She squeezed his hand. “Wait.” She leaned up for a quick kiss, then pulled away. A small, satisfied smile graced Lia’s face. “Okay, we’re good now.”

They stepped out of the woods onto a rocky plateau. Mist floated up around them out of the valley beyond, creating a mysterious atmosphere.

Lia sprinted over to the edge, looked down, and gasped. The ledge she stood on ended in a sheer rock cliff, extending like a pontoon over a lush valley. Tangles of thick greenery that put one in mind of a prehistoric forest were alternately obscured and exposed by the shifting vapors. “Myles, you have to see this!”

He reached the edge just behind her. “Whoa! I feel like a character in a fantasy novel.”

She raised one eyebrow at him. “I feel like that most of the time. It’s generally not a good feeling.”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”

“Yes, but you know what I meant, and it’s still valid.” Her hand strayed to the sword she’d affixed to the side of her pack.

“Right. Although I still don’t think it was necessary to bring weapons on a day hike,” Myles replied.

“And it never hurts to be prepared. I did tell you about that olive-y thing I ran into after dance on Wednesday, right?” She asked pointedly.

“Right. I believe that was right after the part where you think Kyle Cole was hitting on you.”

“And I am _so_ not interested,” she said, then attempted to redirect the subject. “Anyway, I really don’t want to meet up with any more of those without weapons. And it’s just a bad idea to go out without protection in general. You know what our lives are like. …Which is why I generally don’t read fantasy, actually. I mean, busman’s holiday much?”

Thankfully, Myles picked up the old conversation thread. “That’s not a great basis for just rejecting a whole genre of books. There’s a huge variety, and some of them are really good.”

She snorted. “First of all, you don’t read fantasy, you read sci-fi, which is a totally different thing. And you’re only into that because you like all that futuristic military and violence stuff. …Which I will never understand the draw of, by the way. It’s gotta be some kind of crazy guy thing.”

“Not true! And at least there’s redeeming value in fantasy, unlike _your_ trashy romance novels,” Myles retorted.

Suddenly Lia burst out laughing.

“What?” Myles asked.

“Sorry,” Lia gasped. “It’s just that it suddenly occurred to me how bizarre and random these debates we have are.

He sniggered. “Yeah, but they’re awfully fun,” he replied.

“You have a point there,” she acknowledged.

“_And_, you’re just trying to change the subject because you’ve got nothing to defend your romance novels,” he accused.

“Am not!” she protested ineffectually. “They’re – ” She cut off suddenly, her eyes going wide as she caught sight of the demon approaching from behind them. “_Myles!_” she shrieked in warning.

He spun around to see what she was looking at, and blanched. “Oh,” he gulped. “Damn.”

“See? Too fantasy novel,” she muttered under her breath as she pulled her sword free. “This would be why I insisted on bringing weapons.”

“Okay, you were right. This time,” he conceded. He stepped up to stand beside her, clutching his own blade.

“This time? You implying I’m not usually?”

“Bicker later,” he gasped. “Fight now.”

She nodded her agreement to the sensible suggestion, then threw herself into battle.

The demon was the same particularly hideous olive-y kind she’d seen after dance the other night. Grenacs, they’d discovered they were called, and they had definitely come through the portal. Which accounted for their being one of the nastiest, toughest kinds she’d seen.

Nevertheless, the two teen warriors did rather well, particularly as they managed to stick together and put up a unified front. They made a pretty good team, if she did say so herself.

Coming at the Grenac from both sides, they managed to get a number of hits on it, and the demon was clearly weakening. But there remained to them one major disadvantage; the only proven method of killing a Grenac was decapitation, but the demon was so tall that its neck was beyond even Myles’s reach.

Eventually, however, he managed to trip it. Lia took advantage of the opening in an instant, rushing over to hew its neck.

Which left them to deal with a rather hideous corpse, but at least that was the better than the alternative.

“Not quite eco-friendly disposal,” Lia quipped as they struggled to move several hundred pounds of dead weight in the form of demonic flesh. With no little effort, they eventually succeeded in pushing the body over the sheer drop at the edge of the plateau. Lia picked up their swords and began searching around for something to clean them with, while Myles kicked the Grenac’s over to the edge of the cliff, following its body.

Neither of them expected a second demon to show up.

The other Grenac came up from behind Myles. He heard its approach, and managed to turn to face it and get out of the way fast enough to avoid the blow that could’ve knocked him off the edge of the rock ledge, but only barely. The demon continued to advance. Currently unarmed, the boy was only able to dodge its strikes.

“Myles!” Lia rushed back over, tossing him one of the swords.

He grabbed onto the hilt, plucking it from the air. But he had to stop moving for a minute to make the catch, and the Grenac demon took advantage of his pause to strike again. The blow connected, vicious grey claws slashing across Myles’s chest.

Myles hewed at the offending arm, but his strength was failing fast. He staggered and fell to the ground, keeping his sword in front of his body to fend off the demon.

Lia made it over a minute later and took up the battle. She wasn’t quite sure how she did it, but she was running on rage and adrenaline, and made quick work of the Grenac.

Before its body had even collapsed to the ground, she’d run over to Myles’s side.

He really wasn’t looking in good condition. He was breathing shallowly, and it sounded like even that much movement was putting him in even more pain. And there was so much blood.

Lia’s throat closed up. “Oh god. _Myles_,” she murmured, terrified.

Thankfully, she was good at dealing with crises. Admittedly, half her brain was stuck hysterically chanting _No!_ But the other half sort of disconnected from her emotions and began assessing how to deal with the situation rationally, in an automatic sort of matter.

_Help. I have to get help._ She searched around for her cell phone, but realized to her horror that she’d left it in the pocket of the sweatshirt she’d taken off earlier, which she’d left in her room when they stopped by her house to grab supplies. Damn. That made it all that much worse.

Okay, then, they’d have to get back to the trailhead. This was going to take a while.

Before anything else, she’d have to do something about his bleeding. But how? _Oh! Thank god for layers._ She pulled off the button-down shirt she’d been wearing over a camisole, and tied it tightly around him. That should help a bit.

She’d sheathed both swords as they were – no time to clean them now – and started to attach them to her pack. Then she thought the better of it, realizing how suspicious they would look, and instead concealed them in the bushes. She’d have to go back for them later, or get someone else to. Her pack was on her back, so she had both hands free.

She helped Myles get painfully to his feet. He had to lean half against her to support himself, but it was something.

“Can you walk if I help you?” she asked.

“I think … maybe?” He winced.

“It’s okay. Just … take it easy,” she said softly.

He nodded.

“We need to get back to civilization,” she said.

It was about a mile back to the trailhead. With her help, he managed to walk about half the way, but then he lost consciousness altogether.

“No!” Lia exclaimed ineffectually, and cursed silently. Even with her preternatural strength it was quite a feat, but she was desperate enough that she somehow managed to carry him the rest of the way.

Thankfully, there were some other hikers at the trailhead, and she was able to borrow a phone from one of them to call 911.

When the EMTs arrived, she responded mechanically to their questions, giving what information she could and making the requisite excuses for the things she couldn’t tell the truth about. So long as she could remain occupied, she could be detached and keep from panicking too badly.

They wouldn’t let her ride in the back of the ambulance with him. With effort, she forced herself to let him go. She hated seeing him so pale and still, and worse was the knowledge that she couldn’t do anything about it. This was out of her hands; she had to let the medical professionals do their work.

“I love you,” she murmured. Though there was no way he could hear her, she had to say it. Three words she’d never dared to use before, afraid to say them too lightly. But now she knew it was true. And that made this all that much worse.

She turned away and walked over to the passenger door.

Upon reaching the hospital, her first priority was to find a bank of phones. She couldn’t get a hold of Myles’s mom, (no surprise there), so she settled for leaving a message and called Aunt Willow and Uncle Oz instead, and her own parents as well for good measure.

Then she was left unoccupied, exiled to the waiting room with no company but her thoughts and a sick feeling of guilt. She turned over recent events in her head, wishing it hadn’t gone down like that. _I should’ve protected him better. I should’ve done something, anything different. It’s all my fault._

And then she came to a disturbing realization. It _was_ her fault. _He was only hurt because he was with me. The day the portal opened, Myles and Dawn were patrolling, and I was only out for a little while to walk home, but it was me the demon went after. And today we were in the middle of effing nowhere. They’ve got to be tracking me._

Her head dropped into her hands. _He was attacked because he was with me, because he got in the way,_ she thought miserably. _I’m responsible for this. The last person I’d ever want to hurt, and what do I do? Some Champion I am._

Out of hopelessness and guilt, the second realization came to her. Suddenly it was startlingly clear what she had to do. She was the danger magnet. Now everyone she cared about was in danger, and she was failing to protect them, both physically and in terms of figuring out how to stop this Apocalypse. But there was one thing left that she could do. They would be safe so long as she wasn’t around. All she had to do was run away.

She remained in the waiting room until her family arrived, unwilling to give up her vigil until then. But she found herself unable to face them, so when she caught sight of them she quietly slipped out another entrance. She ran all the way home.

She tore through her room, trying to decide what was essential. A few outfits, her wallet, and a sizable stack of weapons all were piled into her backpack. After a slight mental battle with herself, she decided she couldn’t bear to part with her sketchbook, so it got tossed in as well. Conveniently, the pack was practically industrial-sized. She wasn’t crazy like Diana, yet somehow she still managed to end up with tons of crap to carry for school. She did a swift visual survey of the disaster area that had so recently been her room, went back for one more stake, then shouldered her bag and tramped downstairs. She conducted a quick raid on the kitchen, collecting a few meals’ worth of easy snack food. Finally, she stepped outside.

She took a long look back. Truthfully, she was terrified. _It’s for everyone’s sake. They’re safer without me,_ she reminded herself firmly.

Where was she going? She had no clue. She needed to put a little distance between herself and here, and then she could begin to work out details. For now, all she could think was _away_. Part of her mind suggested she was really trying to outpace her cares; she hastily shoved that thought away. _It’s better this way._

She took a deep breath, and set off. Within seconds she was running full tilt again.


	8. Chapter 8

It was a dim, damp morning, with rain not so much falling as misting down. The night before had perhaps been definable as “dark and stormy,” but the weather now seemed to be only half trying. Nevertheless, the mood set was vaguely eerie.

Lia didn’t care one bit about the weather, other than to wish it wasn’t quite so wet. She’d been out all night, attempting to do a routine patrol and gather information about the impending apocalypse. Alone in an unfamiliar city, everything was harder, and all she’d gotten out of the effort was the staking of a few newly risen vampires – fledglings hardly strong enough yet to put up a decent fight – a chipped nail, and a distinct lack of information. Also, not nearly enough sleep. Despite having preternatural strength and stamina, she was still a teenager, and she liked her sleep.

Now, shortly after dawn, she darted through a few back streets and arrived back at the hostel where she was staying. She gratefully got in out of the drizzle, and headed up to her tiny room to crash for a few hours. Lia liked youth hostels, they had more character than hotels, and the cheaper prices were vital too since all she had for money was what she’d saved up from working at the Magic Box after school.

Thinking of which only brought back far too many memories of the large group of both blood relations and close friends that made up her family. She missed the Scoobies so much it hurt. She could picture them so clearly, sitting around the back room of the Magic Box, researching some obscure prophecy, looking up information on the latest demon in town, or just hanging around, chatting, probably a few people training with weapons or practicing spells.

She shook herself. It was for their own good that she’d left, she reminded herself. Sure, they’d stopped the end of the world before, but what was coming was an Apocalypse with a capital A, and the prophecies said it was her deal. She wasn’t going to get anyone else hurt or killed in this mess. Myles had already been critically injured before she left, and as a half-demon her boyfriend was nearly as strong a warrior as she was. The other Champions of the group would be vulnerable too, never mind those who didn’t have supernatural advantages. This was her destiny, why should they have to suffer for it? _No, of course they haven’t worked together on over a dozen Apocalypses, both before and during your time, everything from pure demons to Hellgods. And some of the others – particularly your parents – aren’t just, oh, pretty much the best Warriors in the frickin’ world! And you really think you can manage this without backup,_ that annoying little voice in the back of her head spoke up sarcastically. She shoved it away.

She mentally reviewed what she knew so far about the situation. There would be portal opened to an alternate dimension, letting out an influx of Grenacs, a particularly nasty kind of demon whose mission was to assassinate warriors for the side of good. If the portal was not closed within 12 days, it would remain open indefinitely. There was a possibility of a full demonic army being released as well. As far as she could make out, this was the eighth day since the portal had opened. And she was the only one who could stop this, though she was still trying to figure out why and, more importantly, how. _Things are not looking good for our heroine,_ she thought.

Somewhere in the course of these thoughts, she drifted off. By the time she woke again, it was nearly 4 pm. Berating herself for sleeping the day away, she dragged herself up, grabbed a bite to eat, and prepared to go out again. Knowing she’d probably be out all night again, she fastened her favorite Celtic cross necklace around her neck, then debated how many weapons she could get away with walking around with. She reluctantly left her bow and arrows in her hostel room, but tucked two stakes and several long knives in the pockets of her black cargo pants. Reasonably satisfied with her arsenal, she walked out into the cloudy afternoon.

After a few days in the area, she was beginning to figure out where the best resources on the paranormal and links to the local demonic underground were. Today, her first stop was at a small library she’d found a few streets over which happened to have an unusually large occult section (though not nearly as good as the one at home). She was unable to find out anything more there, so next she stopped at a rather shady bar that was a gathering place of sorts for the demonic population. Sure, a 17-year-old girl looked a bit out of place in a demon bar, but Lia had gotten to be quite good at beating people (and various things that were decidedly _not_ people) up for information. Such interesting skills one learns when growing up in a family of demon fighters.

This time, she hit the jackpot, when an old Kelner demon yielded the location of an old warehouse that’d been taken over by a group of Grenacs. As the sun set, she headed out for the warehouse district.

The warehouse in question wasn’t hard to find. An unmistakable stench of death and decay clung to the building, and Lia had to suppress the urge to gag. “Wish me luck,” she whispered to her absent family, and kicked down the door.

As the demons rushed her, she spun into position and bent to pull out her weapons. She then returned the stakes to her pockets; they were mostly just for vampires as the wood couldn’t pierce the skin of most demons. Reconsidering, she returned a few of the knives as well. She’d learned by now that it was best to leave a few weapons for backup.

Then the Grenacs were on her. She was in action in an instant. She kicked the first one back, and stabbed a blade through the heart of a second, deriving a gory kind of satisfaction from the sight of its thick purple blood oozing out.

The first Grenac recovered quickly, with two following more behind it. She spotted an old crate lying off to the side, and smashed through it with her foot. She then grabbed a long board from it and spun it around, knocking back two of the demons. She pulled her longest knife, almost more of a dagger, from its sheath, and neatly beheaded the third one.

As the other two demons recovered, Lia jumped backwards out the doorway so only one Grenac at a time could get to her. She was quick with her knife and beheaded the first, but the other knocked her down. She sprang to her feet, only to be knocked back again. Then Lia began to get pissed. She jumped back up again, and with a few good punches and a spinning kick knocked the last demon to the floor. She cut off the last Grenac’s head, shoved the body back inside, and looked around.

Only to find the very first one she’d taken down stirring. She cursed under her breath. Of course! She’d forgotten that Grenacs were one of the few demon varieties that couldn’t be killed by a stab to the heart. Only decapitation would work. She threw a knife with practiced ease, and watched it slice through the Grenac’s neck.

She surveyed her work, then set a fire to gut the building and destroy the bodies. She sheathed her knives and wiped her hands clean. There, that was much better. A good night’s work.

Lia walked away in a much-improved mood. For the first time, she felt like she might just actually be able to pull this off.


	9. Chapter 9

Item: There was an army of alter-dimensional demons –namely, Grenacs – coming through the portal. Item: Grenacs, for all their brute strength, could not much think for themselves and therefore were clearly a minion variety (whatever dimension’s equivalent of, say, Fyarls or something like that). Item: Said army must be a cover for some other entity or power. Item: Beyond the portal only Grenacs were to be found; defeating the big bad would require going to the source. Item: There was no way to close the portal without defeating the big bad. Item: Today was the last day it was possible to close the portal.

Reassuring? Not so much.

This was the sum total of the information Lia had on the current apocalypse, from both the research parties at home presided over by Giles, and Lia’s own investigations since she struck out on her own. Research was emphatically not her strong point, but without her friends for backup delving into the books herself was a matter of necessity.

For all that, she wasn’t sure if it had done any good. She damn sure didn’t feel prepared. But there was no more time to spare. Prepared or not, she had to make her stand.

She threw together her arsenal. Plenty of knives; that was good. She wished she had her sword, but of course she hadn’t been able to take it with her.

She still hadn’t found the portal, but she had an idea of where it might be. She’d taken out several more nests nearby since she’d stormed the one warehouse on Tuesday. It stood to reason that the demons were coming from somewhere in or near the warehouse district, so she’d just look around.

When she found it, she wasn’t sure if finding it was a good thing or not. _Yep, I’m definitely going to die,_ she thought bleakly. Either something special was happening or she’d been really blind before, for here was a giant hole in the sky ringed in fire, and a veritable demon army massing around it.

The strangest thing was, for the first time, she felt comfortable with her destiny. She was ready to defeat this scourge or die trying (even though, quite frankly, the with the impossible odds she was facing at present, “die trying” was looking like the more likely option).

With a long knife in each hand and several spares concealed on her body, she sprung into action. Thrust left, kick right, strike high, block low, duck, dodge, strike again. High kick back to force away a demon coming up behind her as she worked her way into the center of the massed demon army. Slash, spin, dodge, kick, thrust. As the battle continued, she lost consciousness of each individual opponent, absorbed in a greater pattern. She was in a whirl of motion, untouchable, reacting automatically and instinctively to each new threat. Never had she felt so completely confident, and she knew, suddenly and inexorably, that this was what she had been born to do.

One of her blades flew out of her hand, and another became too deeply lodged in a Grenac’s corpse to retrieve it easily; she pulled out two spares and continued without missing a beat. In time she acquired a gash across one arm and a slash over her left shoulder and partway down her back, but she recovered quickly and in this trance-like battle state managed to ignore the pain. Such injuries were nothing compared to the number of Grenac corpses piling up behind her.

Unfortunately, the charmed period did not last forever. In time she was exhausted, stiff with pain, and all too aware that she was covered in sweat and blood, and there were still hordes of demons before her. She fought on, because there was nothing else she could do.

Perhaps it was a trick of her tired mind, but it seemed the demons were getting tougher as well. Futilely she began to curse having only knives and daggers with her. The limit of her reach was fast becoming a serious disadvantage.

It wasn’t until she fumbled a block and stumbled when trying to dodge that she realized she was no longer fighting alone. Another quickly stepped in, dispatching the demon before it could get to Lia. She blinked, but Buffy’s slight figure was still there. Her mother turned and helped Lia to her feet, and furthermore passed her a sword, compounding the girl’s gratefulness.

Lia scanned the scene as best she could as she began to fight anew. She spotted both her father and Myles not far away, and out of her peripheral vision caught a glance of an explosion of crimson fire that was almost certainly Aunt Willow’s magic, confirming her immediate suspicions. And if they were here, probably everyone was. She was at once both grateful and horrified. This was supposed to be her fight. What was the point in her efforts to protect them if they just followed her to the battle anyway? The words exploded from her mouth without thought, “You shouldn’t be here!”

“Don’t be an idiot!” Buffy snapped with uncharacteristic harshness, possibly due to the fact that she was currently struggling with a brawny demon twice her size.

“But – I don’t want anyone to get hurt,” Lia gasped.

“And we don’t want you to get killed. You’re not the only one in this. And _we’re_ taking precautions. The weaker fighters are on the edges – these things lose strength the longer they’re out of the portal – and Willow’s working weakening spells.”

Lia nodded almost imperceptibly. So she was right that the Grenacs were growing tougher as she moved on in, she thought vaguely. And no wonder she’d had an easier time with them than before. She sent a silent thank you to Aunt Willow.

“But the prophecy named me,” she protested again.

“Remind me to have a talk with you about prophecies,” her mother muttered.

They had fought their way nearly to the opening of the portal by now. Both warriors fell silent as something new began to emerge. An immense scaled head snaked out, suspended on a long sinuous neck. _Oh shit. A dragon._

“It’s the key,” Buffy hissed at her. She didn’t have time to ask what that meant, for a moment later they were forced to flee as the beast exhaled a spume of fire. They got out of the way just in time, and a group of demons were roasted instead, but Lia dodged left and Buffy to the right, and so they became separated.

_It’s the key._ Lia pondered the statement for a moment as she fended off two Grenacs with her sword. _Well, at least it’s a safe bet that I’m supposed to kill it. Next question: how?_

In the absence of any actual experience or research, she had been taught, the next best thing to go off of was folklore. Much of it was completely made up, but about half the time legends tended to be surprisingly well rooted in fact. The Damphyr searched her brain for anything she’d heard about dragon. _ Lessee … scales more or less impenetrable._ That seemed to be true enough; her sword bounced right off. But that knowledge wasn’t particularly helpful. _Uh, what else? What else?!_

A leg like the trunk of a tree followed the head out of the portal, bringing with it the beginning of the creature’s chest. _May have a vulnerable area on the underbelly!_ Lia recalled triumphantly, noticing just such a spot over its heart. She hurried over.

The dragon noticed the presence of a person running around beneath it, and it craned its neck to find the irritant. Lia huddled behind its leg, and it was unable to reach her. She let out a deep breath of relief, and struck at its heart. Her sword slid right into the unprotected area. She recoiled reflexively at the gush of blood, but the move was successful. Wrenching her sword free, she hastened to get away as the dragon thrashed dangerously in its death throes.

She watched in amazement as the portal shrunk to a pinpoint of light and winked out of existence. As the flame-ringed opening closed around the dragon’s body, it neatly sliced off the part that remained in that dimension.

“Mmm, dragon meat,” Lia muttered sarcastically, looking at it with disgust.

“I’ve never so appreciated the demons that disintegrate into dust or goo.” Buffy had rejoined her.

“I did it,” Lia murmured, somewhat dazedly. She had. Not only was the dimensional wall restored and no new threats coming, the Grenacs who remained were now somewhat aimless, apparently cut off from whatever power had been guiding them.

“What was that about the dragon being key?” Lia asked as she went to work dispatching the remaining demons.

“Well, Giles explains it better than I do, of course,” her mother began, “but basically its so big and powerful – magically – that it has big effects. If it had gotten through, it would’ve torn the dimensional wall, leaving the portal permanently open. But that also means it took a lot to get it through. The power controlling it had so much invested in it that when the dragon died, it lost control.” She made a popping noise. “No more portal. And no more power here.” With a sigh, she brushed sweaty strands of hair out of her face. “I think we’re almost done here.”

Lia allowed herself to tear her attention away from fighting for a minute. There were few demons left, and the rest of their group was beginning to converge on Lia and Buffy.

Worn out from the long battle, and remembering her recent actions towards them with chagrin, Lia found herself unable to face them. She bolted.

***

It was all over. But it didn’t quite feel like it, or perhaps she didn’t quite want to believe it. Despite her relief and elation at having been victorious, she also had not a little trepidation. Because if it was over, that meant she had to face her family.

She was still trying to work up the willpower to do so when her mother tracked her to her room at the hostel.

“Hey Mom,” she greeted her resignedly, not knowing what else to say.

“You did well,” Buffy told her.

Lia gaped at her. “Are you kidding? I was an idiot!”

“Yes. But you were also a hero,” Buffy replied calmly. “I’m not denying that it was wrong of you to pull that, or that you’re going to be grounded for a month when we get home – though you’ll probably get a few weeks off the sentence for saving the world. But I also understand your reasoning. And you can stop self-flagellating now, Lia. Everyone makes mistakes. You’re forgetting the part where anything you do, I’ve done worse.”

“You never ran away,” Lia said morosely.

“Actually, I did.”

“What?! I’ve never heard anything about this.”

Buffy smiled sadly. “I was 15 years old,” she recalled. “After I was kicked out of Hemery, because of course I couldn’t tell the authorities that I only burned down the gym because it was full of vampires. My parents were all fussing over me, and half-convinced I was insane. I was so new to being the Slayer, and I thought maybe I could be normal again if I got out of LA. Wishful thinking. So I took my friend Pike, ran off to Vegas, of all places, and of course walked straight into a mess. Somehow I ended up working as a coat-check girl at a casino run by vampires. I’m not even quite sure how I managed to get out of that one. But I slayed, Pike split, and I dutifully went home and my mom decided the answer to my problems was a ‘fresh start’ and moved us to Sunnydale.”

“Oh,” Lia said vaguely. “I guess you win, you get to keep the ‘screw-up’ crown then,” she joked weakly.

“And don’t you forget it,” Buffy smiled.

“Mom, how can I face the guys again, after everything? How can I convince them to forgive me?” Her voice was a desperate plea, the momentary levity gone.

“Oh, honey, they already have. Lia, it’s easier than you think. We just want to have you back,” Buffy assured her.

Lia nodded, still nervous but newly resolute. “I think I can manage, then,” she murmured. She stood up and began collecting her things from around the room, returning them to her bag. It didn’t take her long to refill the solitary backpack.

She took a quick last glance around. “I think I’m good to go,” she said. She hefted her backpack over her shoulder.

Buffy caught her arm and folded her into an embrace. “You’re a fighter, Lia,” she said. “It’s never the life I wanted for you, but I always knew it was the one you’d have. And I couldn’t be prouder of you.”

“Thanks,” Lia murmured.

She followed her mother out of the hostel, to find the rest of her whole, extended ‘family’ waiting.

The other teens swarmed her. “You shouldn’t have come here,” she muttered.

“Hey, if you get to be a noble idiot and risk your own ass, then so do we,” Lyn retorted.

“And the second part of what I was starting to say is ‘but I’m so glad you did’,” Lia added. “I missed you guys.”

“Then you shouldn’t have left,” Dawn muttered.

“I think what she’s trying to say is, ‘we missed you too’. I sure did,” Diana commented.

And Myles just held her.

“Let’s go home,” Lia said.


End file.
